Open Thread for May 31st, 2015…The NSA/Rand Paul show….

A post 9/11 effort by the American Governmenet that records EVERY phone, fax, internet transmission’s to/from connection and how long it’s made….The agancy had be doing this and other things after 9/11 under ‘Secret’ provsisons of the patriot act that became un-secret when a NSA contract guy named Edward Snowden spilled the beans on the governments actions….

The program has to be oked by Congress every few years, which has been routine…

But the outrage from the media and others has led to a effort to stop the govwernment program….

Rand Paul, a Republican and Libertarian has led a cahrge against the law….

But , he has also been joined by some in Congress on BOTH sides of the aisle…

Some becuase they want the program done in…

Some because they want to stick it to President Obama , who WANTS the program to continue….

The House has passed the US Freedom Act , which isn’t all that it’s advertised….

Essentaill it just stops the Government from vacuuming up everything and orders the communications carriers to HOLD their records of the stuff the NSA might want longer so they can go back and access the stuff…

Since most of thes programs are ‘secret’?

WTF KNOWS what the government is actually doing?

But Rand Paul got his tonight…

The Senate vioted by a wide margin to bring up US Freedom Act for a vote Monday or Tuesday…

The votes are there to pass the Freedom Act , which will rearrange some things , but will essentially leave the programs of the Patriot act still running….

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I still don’t and believe that if he is the Republican nominee he will be defeated by about the same margin as Romney.

Interestingly, and with the caveat that I have no ” inside” information” ,several SC Republicans, who have usually been right on these kind of things in the past ,have assured me that Rubio will implode fairly early in the process because of problems he has in Florida.

Corey thinks so on the basis of a single poll by CNN that gave him a 53% “favorable” rating.

However,I have found two other polls,by the New Your Times and Bloomberg from the past month, that seemingly contradict such a finding.

The NYT poll gives him a dismal 30% “favorable” rating,while Bloomberg has him at 46% favorable and46% Unfavorable.

Averaging all three out you come up with a”favorable” rating of 43-44% or roughly the same as President Obama whom Corey has labelled unpopular.

Of course we all know that the CNN poll is “fair and balanced” while the others are too “liberal.”(hahaha)

Placing too much emphasis on a single poll is inherently a dangerous move IF one is interested in the truth of a matter.

My personal feeling is that Americans,Particularly Republicans themselves, remain very ambivalent about GWB.For sure he is likely more “popular” than he was several years back.As I mentioned the other day,such is the natural flow as ones presidency fades somewhat in memory.Bush is a like able able fellow(I like him myself) but his policies to large extent are still with us and they are not so popular.

Accordingly, all partisanship aside,it is not accurate I think to label him “now popular.”

Mostly though, I was just surprised that you cited Dubya as someone you “liked.” For years, he has been described online by so many on the left as the personification of evil, etc. etc. I do not know if the others here would be willing to say they “like” Dubya.

As I’ve repeated too many times already, George Will attributes his conservative, pessimistic view of the human character and condition to his Southern Illinois youth rooting for the Cubs, while his friends who turned into sunny, optimistic liberals had been rooting for the more-successful St Louis Cardinals.

I think, however, that might be taken a little too far: Boston, Eastern New England and the rest of Red Sox Nation have never lacked for liberal optimists even under the generations-long Curse of the Bambino.

Losing the pennant or the Series, often painfully, was considered something like New England weather or Republican presidents that was only to be expected and had to be endured with stoic Yankee determination.

What George Will says makes sense to some extent, but I think among long-suffering Cubs fan, there has always been a Midwestern optimistic “wait til next year” tradition.

The 2003 disappointment was so brutal, that people started getting far more dark about the situation, and that extended as the decade continued, but right now, looking at the team, and what we believe lies ahead, Die Hard Cubs fans are extremely optimistic, if not giddy.

It’s also hard for me to associate New England with sunny optimism for some reason.

Of course there was always (just as with Brooklyn Dodgers fans like Doris Kearns Goodwin) that “wait til next year !” in the New England (not NY!) Yankee determination, but shadowed with anticipatory resignation (“but sadly we won’t be that surprised if they lose again; kismet; His Will be done.”)

I think New Englanders probably became a little more pessimistic after winning all four major crowns in the first decade of the millennium, but not about sports.

There was 9/11, two Bush elections and several major military-political disasters, accompanied by a startling wave of local corruption revelations, both political and criminal (Whitey Bulger). And many pockets of post-industrial economic stagnation and hopelessness.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) wants to block the Obama administration from restricting the Defense Department from transferring excess equipment to local law enforcement.

The senator, who faces what could be a challenging reelection race next year, is offering an amendment to an annual defense policy bill that would prohibit any regulation or policy that restricts the federal government from selling or donating its excess material to a state or local agency.

Chinese Hacking of U.S. Data May Extend to Insurance Companies
The same Chinese hackers who breached the records of at least four million government workers through the Office of Personnel Management appear to have been responsible for similar thefts of personal data at two major health care firms, Anthem and Premera, according to cybersecurity experts.

The multiple attacks, which began last year and were all discovered this spring, appear to mark a new era in cyberespionage with the theft of huge quantities of data and no clear motive for the hackers.

But Jack, what about the Cubans who can’t vote who are serving your drinks? Remember Corey shaming us for entertaining even going to Cuba in those sentiments he typed away..probably on a Chinese made device no less.

Honestly the guy should redirect the $$ he sends to Republican politicians to a travel fund and get out of Chicagoland from time to time.

Between the Kochs and Sheldon Adelson those pols are covered and won’t miss a dime!

Few policies have “failed” written so clearly and unmistakeably upon them as the Cuban embargo. Usually there’s at least some room for rational or theoretical argument about something like tariffs, the utility of the Fed, the pro’s and con’s of labor unions or of private corporations, states’ rights, gun control, campaign finance or the structure of social insurance.

But — echoing the classical definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over again with the same effect, yet somehow expecting a different result — 55 years of the Cuban embargo have done nothing to weaken Castroism or Communist dictatorship in Cuba, just made life much more difficult for Cubans both in Cuba and abroad.

In the long run (to consider the other rationalization given for the embargo) it hasn’t even deterred other Latin Americans from following or spreading some or all of the Castros’ policies.

As we have discussed here
The policy was NEVER gonna be changed
By a GOPer President
And a Dem President could only do so
As Obama has done with no reelection to deal
With….
The issue has more to deal with Florida electoral votes than anything else….